When I was creating my last recipe, Oven-Fried Okra, I suspected that the batter I used, a combination of cornmeal and brown rice flour, would make a wonderfully crunchy breading for other vegetables. I lost no time checking that theory out on one of my favorite summer veggies, eggplant. I’m happy to say that I was right!

When I was growing up, I knew of only three ways to eat okra–in gumbo, stewed, or fried. As I’ve gotten older and had the opportunity to try recipes from around the world, I’ve grown to love okra in other dishes, such as curries, as well as my favorite (and the easiest) way to prepare it, roasted. I haven’t had fried okra in years because even if I could get past the oil involved in frying, I’ve never seen a vegan version on a menu. If you ask the chef, you’ll find she uses buttermilk, at the very least, and bacon drippings, at the worst.

All of this is to say that I haven’t had fried okra in a very, very long time, so I’m not going to claim that I remember it well enough to duplicate the flavor and texture in a vegan, fat-free version. But I do think I succeed in doing what I set out to do, which was create okra with a crunch to it. As I said, I loveroasted okra. Roasting it gives it a lovely smoky flavor and dries up all the “slime” inside the pod. But it doesn’t really make the okra crunchy, and recently I had a craving for crunch, so I set about figuring out how to accomplish that without using oil.

At the beginning of last fall, the jalapeño plants in my garden went into overdrive, and I found myself with a whole bunch of peppers all at one time. Now, I love jalapeños. I put slices of them, seeds and all, on sandwiches, tacos, burritos, and burgers all summer long. I love the heat and the crunch that the fresh green peppers provide. But there was no way my family and I could eat this many peppers before they went bad, so I started looking into ways to preserve them.

I’ve never much cared for the pickled jalapeños you can buy in stores; they taste like they look: drab and limp. So I didn’t have much hope that I’d really enjoy jalapeños that I’d pickled myself, but I was willing to give it a try rather than let my harvest go to waste. I’m so glad I did! They turned out crisp, spicy, and delicious, and my family enjoyed them until about mid-winter when they ran out.

May has flown by and was very close to being the first month since I started this blog that I haven’t posted anything. The end of the school year is always busy for us, but because E was graduating, this May was more jam-packed than usual. But all the activity and anticipation came to a crescendo on a cool, sunny day last week when E received her diploma:

My “little girl” turned 18 last week. I feel like I should have something profound to say on this momentous occasion, but everything that comes to mind is so trite: “Time flies.” “They grow up so fast.” “It seems like only yesterday that she started kindergarten.” There’s a reason those expressions are so overused: The feelings of amazement, pride, and nostalgia you feel at seeing your child become an adult are both universal and indescribable. “Where does the time go?”